Blues Boss Admits Cuellar Is Gold

Alex McLeish has stated that Martin O'Neill has struck gold with his capture of Carlos Cuellar.

McLeish, former Rangers manager still keeps one eye on the Gers apparently and was very impressed with Cuellar's debut season in the Scottish Premier League.

Speaking on our official site, he said:

'He's a good player. It will be interesting to see him at another level. It's definitely a huge step up, the Premiership. But he played extremely well for Rangers. He was a stalwart defender, a no-nonsense defender, no frills, he just did his job.

'He sniffed out danger when Rangers were under pressure in that great UEFA Cup run last season. I think you can only go on what you've seen so far, but certainly the Premier League will be a real test for Carlos.

'But I think Martin O'Neill, who is quite a shrewdie in the transfer market, knows what he's doing.'

Meanwhile Stoke City boss Tony Pulis has revealed the Barclays Premier League newboys missed out in the race to sign Cuéllar.

Must admit it's strange for a Blues manager to be commenting on our signings, even though McLeish has the Rangers tie in. Not sure how many Blues fans will react to this, but given their could be some reaction to him 'praising up' O'Neill's signing, he must be pretty confident Cuellar will make a big difference to us this season.

I wasn't going to bother with this earlier, but it fits in here. In other Cuellar news, Stoke City manager Tony Pulis has said he was in for Cuellar himself, but once he found out we were interested, he gave up.

'We did make enquiries and I was more than confident. But once you hear that a club of Villa's size are in for him big time you clearly fear the worst.'

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Your Comments (oldest first)

I take my hat off to McLeish for being prepared to speak from the heart. I sincerely hope we have got a gem. I recall Petrov was a "rave" at Celtic. The Prem. always sorts out the men from the boys. Hopefully we will see him on Sunday against Man City and give him a warm welcome to Villa.

For some reason, and I'm prepared to be lynched by some Villa fans for saying this, but I actually quite like McLeish. Whilst I couldn't stand Mr Potato Head, and still can't, McLeish seems to have a bit more about him. Here's hoping he sees sense and leaves the Blues for someone better soon.

I like him too paint nothing. I don't even mind potato head. I think we are too far from Blues these days to even be bothered by petty local rivalries any more. We have bigger fish to fry. In fact, to be honest I find it a bit sad that we still sing the "s*hitting on the city" song on match day...

Carlos Cuellar has certainly received glowing tributes from all quarters, and on the evidence of what I've heard and read, we've clearly got ourselves a top notch central defender. Now its all down to Carlos to prove to all, that their faith and belief in him wasn't unfounded.

JJR89 I think they are being nice as they know we dont really care about them anymore as we, as simonbigron put it have "bigger fish to fry" but thats easy for someone who lives in Ireland not having to put up with birmingham fans to say.I think another part of it is becouse of when the blues board came out with rubbish last year and then General Krulak made a laughing stock of them so I think they fear it happening again.

Valid comments there Tallaght Villan, few could argue with you, not even their most fervent supporters. They are basically a yo-yo club nowadays, with west Brom no doubt poised to once again take over as our real local rivals.

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